1. Great Explorers

2. European whose descriptions of the riches of China made traders want to go to Asia.

3. Marco Polo

4. Leader of First Europeans to visit the Americas

5. Leif Eriksson

6. Portuguese explorer who found a sea route to Asia by sailing around Africa

7. Vasco da Gama

8. Portuguese explorer who was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa.

9. Bartholomeu Dias

10. Italian explorer who figured out that Columbus had not reached Asia.

11. Amerigo Vespucci

12. European who proved it was possible to reach Asia by sailing west from Europe

13. Ferdinand Magellan

14. Leader of the Spanish conquistadors who conquered the Aztecs

15. Hernando Cortes

16. Spanish conquistador who ordered his soldiers to kill the Inca Emperor

17. Francisco Pizzaro

18. Spanish explorer who looked for the Fountain of Youth and named for present-day Florida.

19. Juan Ponce de Leon

20. Explorer who claimed for Spain all of what is today the southeastern United States.

21. Hernando de Soto

22. Explorer who founded Quebec and Montreal.

23. Samuel de Champlain